Category Archives: Environmental Issues

Deer and elk populations bouncing back in Northwest Montana

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As well as being good news for hunters, this will no doubt add fuel to the debate about wolf population impact on big game . . .

Big game wildlife populations appear to be bouncing back in Northwest Montana after a few rough years, according to state Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ spring surveys.

The percentage of white-tail fawns that survived winter is the highest since 2006 in Region 1, according to FWP Wildlife Manager Jim Williams. Williams said the survey found an average of 44 fawns for every 100 adults. Last year, that number was 30/100. In 2009, it had dropped to 24/100. Mule deer and elk populations also gained ground in almost all areas, Williams said.

The latest population estimates are welcome news for hunters and FWP. Last fall, nearly every region in the state saw significant declines in both animals harvested and hunters in the field, supporting a widespread perception that big game populations, specifically deer, are on the decline.

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Big Creek water quality restoration complete

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Here’s the Missoulian’s report on the Big Creek water quality restoration project . . .

A major tributary to the North Fork of the Flathead River was removed from a list of impaired Montana water bodies Friday, becoming the first state stream to meet the standards for delisting. Officials with the Hungry Horse Ranger District and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced that Big Creek is the first water body to complete a full water quality restoration process after it was added to a list of sediment-impaired waters in 1996.

Hungry Horse District Ranger Jimmy DeHerrera said the delisting is a major accomplishment, and the result of a watershed restoration plan that began nine years ago. The plan involved decommissioning some 60 miles of forest logging roads, removing 47 culverts and replacing an additional 19, improving 89 miles of roads to decrease storm water runoff, and replanting 25 acres of eroding uplands.

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Big Creek officially completes water quality restoration

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Big Creek, a major tributary of the North Fork, has now officially completed a restoration process aimed at reducing sediment contamination. . . .

Big Creek is the first stream in the state to have completed a water quality restoration process aimed at reducing sediments.

the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and Flathead National Forest announced the news Thursday that Big Creek had been removed from the state’s list of impaired waters.

Recent monitoring data has shown that sediment and stream conditions in Big Creek, a major tributary to the North Fork of the Flathead River, now are similar to conditions in streams with minimal human impacts.

That wasn’t the case in 1996, when Big Creek was added to a list of Montana waters with impaired water quality.

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Wandering wolf settled in Northern California — for now

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“OR7,” the first wild wolf to enter California in almost 90 years (see earlier story), seems to have settled down in Northern California for now after a brief excursion back into Oregon . . .

A young male wolf from Oregon that has won worldwide fame while trekking across mountains, deserts and highways looking for a mate has had what appears to be his first close encounter with people, and got his picture taken, to boot.

A federal trapper, a state game warden and a state wildlife biologist were visiting ranchers in Northern California on Tuesday to notify them that GPS signals showed the gray wolf was in the area, when they stopped to look over a sagebrush hillside with binoculars, said Karen Kovacs, wildlife program manager for the California Department of Fish and Game in Redding, Calif.

“There, all of a sudden, out pops a head, and there he is,” she said. “He appeared very healthy.”

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Montana FWP gives tentative OK to wolf trapping

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The FWP commissioners voted tentative approval for wolf trapping this hunting season, as well as elimination of quotas . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioners have given their initial approval to the 2012 wolf-hunt proposal that would allow trapping and eliminate quotas.

After a nearly four-hour hearing Thursday in which more than 60 people spoke, the commissioners voted to put the proposal out to public comment until June 25.

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Montana FWP considering wolf-trapping season

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There’s been some loose talk recently about introducing a wolf trapping season . . .

State wildlife managers want to substantially liberalize the 2012-13 wolf-hunting season in another attempt to decrease pack numbers in Montana.

Trapping wolves, allowing the taking of up to three wolves, using electronic calls, lengthening the hunt and eliminating quotas are among the proposals to be introduced at Thursday’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission meeting.

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Controversial bill that aims to shift authority over federal lands within 100 miles of the U.S. border nears House vote

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From the Missoulian . . .

A controversial bill that aims to shift authority over federal lands within 100 miles of the U.S. border to the Department of Homeland Security could be nearing a vote on the House floor, a development that has renewed debate over the measure’s applicability in places like Montana, where it would strip dozens of environmental protections from Glacier National Park and designated wilderness areas.

The proposed legislation, called the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, or H.R. 1505, would exempt Homeland Security from compliance with 36 federal environmental protection laws in order to expedite border security, including the National Environmental Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

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Cutthroat trout’s ear bone reveals its life history

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This recently released study on westslope cutthroat trout migration tracking is pretty interesting stuff . . .

Like a tree’s concentric growth rings, a small bone within a fish’s ear reveals a history of its growth. And according to a new study of westslope cutthroat trout in the Flathead River system, the bone also contains a record of its migration pathways – a kind of geochemical diary of its life.

The bone, called an otolith, acquires a new ring every day of the fish’s life. All fish have them, and for decades scientists have counted the bands of the bone to determine the age of a fish, as well as estimate population growth.

But a study published last week by a slate of Montana researchers in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences brings to light new information that the ear bones also contain a unique fingerprint of the water chemistry where the fish swims on a given day, which can be used to map the entire life history of a fish within a river network.

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Another sign of spring: deer counting

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Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks people are out in the field gathering data on deer populations . . .

Hunting deer in springtime resembles its fall cousin in everything but the weaponry: Get up before dawn, go far away from other people, creep quietly to avoid scaring the quarry.

The only difference is that the big scopes don’t have rifles attached. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Jay Kolbe has his mounted to his pickup window. As the morning light shifts from blue to yellow, he drives from one patch of new grass to another, counting every whitetail adult and fawn he can spot.

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